tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8483480380245257312.post4792757188919737289..comments2023-06-03T06:28:59.031-07:00Comments on Valley of Vision: Tradition and the futureMatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15758556902359096640noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8483480380245257312.post-40060439875748964832014-07-21T14:13:35.855-07:002014-07-21T14:13:35.855-07:00Hi Roger,
Thanks so much for your feedback, it is...Hi Roger, <br />Thanks so much for your feedback, it is great to have comments from someone who is at the heart of the questions I raise here. I do hope you and Kim are ok, and I'll keep you both in my prayers. <br /><br />The page was indeed called Catholic Treasury on Facebook - here is the link: www.facebook.com/catholictreasury and thank you for doing that.<br /><br />That last line is very telling - "It was not the effect of the Church on the world, but the effect of the world on the Church." I hope that there are people who will be able to perform the Christian Hermetic task of guarding the Church. Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15758556902359096640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8483480380245257312.post-68765123047565713682014-07-20T00:23:14.756-07:002014-07-20T00:23:14.756-07:00Matthew, my original comment was too long to be ac...Matthew, my original comment was too long to be accepted. So I had to cut out part of Tomberg's quote to fit it in. I will now paste it in as a second reply. This bit comes just prior to the bit I left in:<br /><br />"It happened that the “second Pentecostal miracle” hoped for and prayed for by the Holy Father – the proclamation by the World Council of a deepened, elevated and expanded treasure of Church revelation – was replaced by a policy of “keeping in step with the times”.<br /><br />The Council did not reflect the timeless inspirations of heaven, but rather the earthly needs, complaints, wishes and demands of the age .<br /><br />It became a sort of religious parliament with a “progressive left”, a “conservative right” and a “moderate center”.<br /><br />Thus people spoke of a “democratisation” of the Church, now breaking through.<br /><br />The “world” remarked with satisfaction: the Catholic Church is moving closer to us; yes, just a little while and it will be part of us – the Council exudes a “fresh wind”, the wind of a free and modern spirit! …<br /><br />A fresh wind did indeed blow from the Council.<br /><br />It blew up such problems as the abolition of the celibacy of priests suddenly become pressing; the problem of mixed marriages with those another faith; the problem of acceptability of the “pill” and other methods of contraception; the problem of “demythologisation” of the Holy Scripture and of tradition; the problem of the Mass, in the sense of abolishing Latin as the liturgical and sacred language and the substitution for it of many national languages and many other problems associated with conforming to the spirit of the age …<br /><br />The “fresh wind” of the council was not the wind of the Pentecost miracle in the Church but a wind blowing out of the “world” into the Church – through a portal which had now been opened.<br /><br />It was not the effect of the Church on the world, but the effect of the world on the Church."Roger Buckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10722568291805894518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8483480380245257312.post-43881352386576573932014-07-20T00:20:44.187-07:002014-07-20T00:20:44.187-07:00Thank you, Matthew!
Very meaningful and well said...Thank you, Matthew!<br /><br />Very meaningful and well said.<br /><br />Comments:<br /><br />"To come back to the danger of turning away from the difficult parts of our faith, in order to make it palatable, I heard recently that the Anglican Synod will soon vote on whether to keep in the part of the baptism ceremony about rejecting Satan and all his works."<br /><br />Unbelievable - and I thank you for alerting me.<br /><br />But to come back to your journey - all very moving indeed.<br /><br />Among other things, this so important:<br /><br />"It is also true that I was searching for something with depth - something beautiful, good and true, but I often found it obscured in my own faith by a misguided attempt to be 'relevant' to young people, which is of course the one thing that will put off any young person! It was like the church was embarrassed about the great treasury of wisdom it possessed in the Saints and the Sacraments, and was attempting to be a protestant sect. Many people who are brought up Catholic get the impression that their faith is just being really nice to people. But this kind of empty moralism is a flattened, deracinated faith."<br /><br />The Church is dying, at least in the West. <br /><br />From Valentin Tomberg's Lazarus (which you have probably seen):<br /><br />“Against the will and hope of the now deceased Pope John XXIII and of his successor, Paul VI, it happened that the Second Vatican Council became a door which opened to the world, but in such a way that the “world’s wind” blew into the Church.<br /><br />The Council for which Pope John XXIII prayed did in fact fail; it failed … to guard the “portal” where the way begins which leads to degeneration, to exhaustion, and to death (hades) – the “way of the world”.<br /><br />This failure to guard the threshold the portal opening up to the “way of the world” … is nothing else and can be nothing else but the way to death …”<br /><br />Could anything be clearer? Tomberg - very consciously, one may be sure – invokes the word hades – suggesting hell. He clearly believes the Church has started on “the way to death”.<br /><br />Matthew, the older I get, the more _existentially real_ this becomes for me. In fact, it is hitting Kim and myself in such an interior, existential way, that there may be some big changes coming in our lives ...<br /><br />But thank you for everything in your post, including your journey in adolescence, to VT etc ...<br /><br />Finally, long ago, you asked me to shout out about your fine Facebook effort. You may hardly believe this - but I am so _dumb_ with internet things that I kept thinking, how am I going to do this at our site. (Given that I almost always avoid short blogs with single messages in favour of longer pieces).<br /><br />Only recently did I see that Facebook actually gives me the opportunity to invite Friends to pages. <br /><br />So I plan to do that now, but I must find the page. Catholic treasury was it called? <br /><br />Not been using Facebook recently - but I will look. Anyway, I really liked what you were doing with that page and want to revisit it.<br /><br />Thinking of you, Lucia and Lisa warmly and tenderly. You give me hope ...Roger Buckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10722568291805894518noreply@blogger.com